Typical of L.A. Times(aka Pravda West), they have pro-gun piece, and to "balance" the new reporting has anti piece.
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LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20010228/t000017767.html
Wednesday, February 28, 2001
Gun Control Law Helped Cut Crime, Study Says
Research: UC Davis looked at criminal records of gun offenders who tried
to purchase firearms.
By SHARON BERNSTEIN, Times Health Writer
California's gun control law appears to have had a moderate impact on
reducing additional violent crimes by people convicted of gun-related
offenses, public health researchers at UC Davis reported in a new study.
The researchers examined the criminal records of 1,654 people who had
been convicted of gun-related misdemeanors and subsequently tried to buy
handguns in California between 1989 and 1993. That time period allowed a
comparison of criminal activity before and after a 1992 law that forbade
firearm sales to those convicted of gun-related crimes.
Those who purchased guns before the law took effect were 29% more
likely to commit violent or gun-related crimes than those who came along a
few years later and were denied such purchases.
The findings, to be published today in the Journal of the American
Medical Assn., do not show that gun violence was eliminated or even
dramatically reduced by the handgun law, said the study's chief author,
Garen J. Wintemute. But they do indicate that the law has had an effect,
said Wintemute, an emergency room doctor and public health researcher who
heads the university's Violence Prevention Research Program.
The next step, he said, would be to combine the handgun law with
other social programs aimed at reducing violence.
"It's going to take more than any one single program to prevent all
violent crime," Wintemute said.
Thomas B. Cole, a physician who writes about public health issues for
the medical journal, compared gun violence with other injury-related
public health problems, such as motor vehicle crashes. No single program
has been responsible for the enormous decline in traffic fatalities in the
last few decades, but, taken together, vehicle safety standards, seat
belts, speed enforcement and drunk driving laws have had a significant
effect.
The study comes as several states consider expanding their handgun
laws. At the same time, some gun control advocates fear that President
Bush, who as governor of Texas supported and signed a law expanding the
right to carry concealed weapons there, will attempt to discourage gun
control legislation.
"We have on hand the evidence we need to broaden the prohibition on
gun purchases [by violent criminals]," Wintemute said.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times